There is a lamp on my computer desk. There is nothing special about it. It's a reading lamp. I've had it since I was very little, although it hasn't always been on my computer desk. Anyway, the bulb went out the other day. There's nothing so extraordinary about this, the bulb has been changed before, after all. On the other hand, I couldn't remember the last time when. So it was due for a change. I decided to change it.

A few days later, I actually got around to changing it by getting a new bulb from the bulb supply, and I noticed it was a CFL. I briefly felt smug for being better for the environment, and then I remembered that LED lights are probably going to replace the CFL soon enough, making the CFL a very short-lived phase of our lighting history.

So after bringing the CFL bulb up to my lamp, I began to unscrew the old bulb. It was difficult to turn, and after using some language that would make my grandfather blush, I wondered if it was going to break. I kept having to turn it, then re-position the entire bulb-socket mechanism, then turn some more. Eventually, the bulb came out. Or at least, so I thought. As it turned out, only about half the bulb came out. The base of it was still stuck, threaded in the socket.

What was I to do? My first thought was to ignore it and just go without a lamp. My next thought was to switch it with the other lamp and pretend that I'd always had this one. But then I thought "No, Mike, you're an Engineer, and what kind of Engineer would you be if you couldn't solve this tiny problem?" So downstairs I went, to get a pair of pliers.

I knew I couldn't just pull it out, because it was still threaded. So what I figured I would do is push the pliers into the socket, then open them to put pressure on the threads so I could turn evenly. But first, I tried to just grab one edge and turn it using just that. That didn't work out. I went back to my original idea, and out it came! I put in the CFL, and lit it up, and all was well!

And my first instinct was to blog about it.

-mikeejimbo

I just saw something in the convenience store that caught my attention. It was a snack mix that had cashews in it, which was the first thing that I saw because I love cashews. The next thing I noticed was that it was pizza flavored. Cashews on pizza? That is weird, but AWESOME. And the third thing I noticed was that it was called Gamer Grub.

Grub for gamers? It's bound to be overpriced - yep, $2.00 for 6oz bag. And heck, that was the 2 for $4 special the store had - normally they were 2.49. But I love cashews and I love pizza, so I bought it without a second thought.

As I walked out of the store with it, I examined the bag more closely. According to it, it had a special formula of nutrients designed to improve focus while gaming. And it said it wouldn't cause greasy fingers or keyboard crumbs. The reason was that it was designed to be eaten by tearing open the specially designed bag and just pouring it into your mouth. Which I didn't realize at first, so I pulled out a cashew and thought it was greasier than they claimed. But then, it dawned on me that I was "doin' it wrong" and I began to feed on it the proper way.

It was delicious. As far as pizza-tasting snacks go, this was one of the best - despite the cashews. I have no idea how they did it, but cashews, almonds, and other snack-like foods became the perfect carriers for whatever secret pizza sauce they poured on it. Not only that, but it did seem to live up to its claims of energizing the eater. Although I was not gaming at the time, I figured that it would likely help me focus in class.

Of course, I had to take a look at the nutrition facts myself. I suspected that they wouldn't actually be very good for you. And yes, they are about as sodium-filled as they can get, and the two packs I ate constituted about half of the calories I need per day. But I don't eat breakfast so hopefully I can get away with this. Other than that though, they aren't too bad. The pizza kind, at least, is very low in sugar (although it has a fair amount of other simple carbohydrates). It has 3g of protein per serving, which is 12g per bag (There are somehow four servings in a bag despite the obvious result of eating it all at once), which isn't exactly low as far as protein goes. On the other hand I had expected more, given that it was filled with cashews. They are also chock-full of nutrients that no one says are bad for you, though, like Vitamin A. Also, despite being an "energy" food there is no caffeine. It would be kind of hard to pack caffeine into a snack mix, admittedly, but I suspect this was an intentional choice of the manufacturer. Likely, gamers who would use this as intended will be drinking caffeinated beverages alongside them anyway. (I was, and I wasn't even gaming.)

And yet, they are delicious, and despite their price, high calorie count and extremely high sodium, I want more.

I suspect cocaine is involved.

-mikeejimbo